


Winsome

by HeleneInTheClouds



Category: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue Series - Mackenzi Lee
Genre: AU that’s set during ww1 and they’re both soldiers, Angst, M/M, The Discord Server Made Me Do it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:22:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29131752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeleneInTheClouds/pseuds/HeleneInTheClouds
Relationships: Henry "Monty" Montague/Percy Newton
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	Winsome

I blink again and again in a futile attempt to rid myself of the shrill noise drumming into my ear. Every footstep of a heavy boot into the soil sends a new wave of pain through my head. They’re moving away from me, thank god, all except for one.

My hands are covered in mud and blood as I stretch them towards Percy.

I wonder what I would look like from the clouds. From where I lie, the pale white puffs are beautiful, but they cannot compare to Percy’s face.

“Monty!” He drops to his knees next to me. “You will be all right. You are going to survive.” 

In the distance I can hear someone shout his name. “Newton! We have to leave!”

Percy ignores them and I feel his hand against my cheek.   
  
“You will live, and you will grow to be a hundred.” His voice cracks and breaks. I see a tear in his left eye.

 _ Don’t cry, _I want to tell him.  _ It’s all right. This is what I came here for. This is how I planned it. _

“You will become old and gray and you will need to help me walk because I will be old and gray with you.”

_ Before the war. Before him. Before his eyes spoke of a life that could be, and his lips showed me a tenderness I had lost on the day of my father’s first punch. _

“Remember when we said we would run away together, to a small house in a forest where no one could find us.”

I did. The Germans had poisoned our food supply and we were chewing on rationed uncooked potatoes for days, joking that we could live in a forest and eat better than we did.

Percy’s face becomes blurred and I lament that I cannot see his freckles anymore.

“We’ll have a cat, like you want, to chase away the mice.” His words are no more than a hushed whisper.

“And a goat...” I manage to smile. The smile he returns fades into the rest of his face, becoming a cloud of the most beautiful brown in the world.

“Yes.Stay awake. Stay with me.”

He squeezes my hand and I try to squeeze back. My fingers refuse, they always had a habit of grasping bottles they should not. How ironic of them to fail me now, when I want to hold what is dearest to me.

“I love you.”

Percy’s face is so close I feel a strand of his hair brush my skin and a tear on my cheek.

I expected the clouds to tell me I look shameful. A former aristocrat bleeding in a field. Instead I think I look winsome. I never thought I was ever of any importance, but lying in Percy’s embrace, I know it is not true.

_ I love you, _ I reply. He does not hear it. My lips are too heavy to move and the earth turns my vision as dark as the soil.


End file.
